Oatmeal Streusel Cookies

When I started to experiment with a recipe for Coffee Cake Pancakes – pancakes with a coffee cake-like streusel cooked into them – I needed to separate the streusel from regular coffee cake so that I could include it with the pancakes. I ended up making a big batch of streusel on its own so that it could be mixed into the pancake batter. The streusel was easy to make and delicious, like crispy, cinnamon shortbread cookies. It was great in the pancakes and eaten plain, but it had so many possibilities that I knew there were other recipes out there it would work well in.

I ended up baking some of the streusel topping (already baked and crispy) into a batch of oatmeal cookies. The cookies immediately took on a coffee cake-like flavor, so with each bite it seemed like you were getting cookies, coffee cake and a bowl of oatmeal all rolled into one little treat! The topping added crunch to a chewier cookie, and the oatmeal flavor really complemented the cinnamon from the streusel.

Even though it seems like a simple change from a regular batch of oatmeal cookies, this streusel topping made a huge impact. It takes a little bit of preparation to make the streusel ahead of time, but the streusel can be made several days in advance and stored in an airtight container, so this doesn’t have to be a big one-day project. Even if you do make the whole batch in one afternoon, the result is well worth it. The flavors and texture of the finished cookie are really unusual and incredibly tasty.

They’re addictive, of course, so you might want to have some friends available to share some of the cookies if you don’t want to risk eating the whole batch yourself.

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars until light. Beat in eggs, one at a time, followed by vanilla extract. Stir in flour mixture, and when no streaks of flour remain stir in oats and streusel.
Drop rounded tablespoonfuls of dough onto prepared baking sheet.
Bake for 12-14 minutes, until cookies are light gold around the edges.
Let cool on a baking sheet for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, stir together flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar and salt. Add butter to bowl and blend at low speed with a hand mixer until mixture resembles coarse, wet sand. Stir in pecans
Grab handfuls of the streusel mixture and press them together into clumps. Drop gently onto baking sheet. If clumps are too large (say, bigger than a golf ball) break up slightly.
Bake for 25-30 minutes, until firm and light gold. Cool on baking sheet.
Before using, coarsely chop if pieces seem too large to easily use as a topping.
Store in an airtight container if not using right away.

18 Comments

BentSpork

January 16, 2009

Regarding CI’s lemon poppyseed sugar cookies, someone commented “It’s like the best part of the muffin.” This sounds like the best part of the coffee cake! (But without all that cake.) I’ll have to try this.

Speaking of cookie recipes,what happened to the iced raisin cookie you were working on in December?

sharon

These are actually very good cookies. I froze half the batter in cookie balls to bake later. That is unless I eat the cookie dough frozen. Yummm

Monet

January 19, 2009

I baked these last night and shared them with friends. They were a hit!
Thanks again for sharing your great recipes. 🙂

Elizabeth

February 9, 2009

I wasn’t thrilled with the streusel, it didn’t turn out the way I’d expected – I may have overbaked the streusel in the first step though. I’m wondering what would happen if instead of prebaking the streusel, I froze it (so it would stay together when mixed into the cookie dough) and then it baked inside the cookies. I wonder if the streusel would bake enough inside the cookies.

These are so uniquely delicious. They look like average oatmeal cookies but the flavour of the streusel explodes in your mouth! Thank you for sharing the recipe. I included it in my blog along with some pictures. 🙂

n a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars until light. Beat in eggs, one at a time, followed by vanilla extract. Stir in flour mixture, and when no streaks of flour remain stir in oats and streusel.

kdsgramma

January 30, 2013

These cookies are very good. My 19 year old daughter came home and told me I just had to find a recipe for oatmeal streusel cookies cause they were awesome. I had never heard of this cookie so I googled it and came up with your recipe. She said they were awesome. I don’t normally eat oatmeal cookies nor have I ever made any. I will definitely make and eat these again. Thanks for the recipe!

[…] Oatmeal Streusel Cookies (from Baking Bites). Yes, I have a fair bit of a sweet tooth, and I also have a thing about baking. If not for the fact that I just baked up nearly 5 dozen bran muffins for lunches this week and next, I would probably already have made these. And eaten them all, too. […]